by Dale Mayer
“What if we’re in yet a different dimension? Or maybe a different time frame? Maybe your mother moved when you didn’t return home.”
Cold raced down her spine. She gasped in pain. “Oh, no way. I haven’t been gone for that long.”
“When you left the party, no. I don’t know if time is the same here as there. It should be but…we’ve twisted so many things we can’t count on it.”
She slumped back from her position on the floor to lean against the bed. Her gaze centered on the pile of food, not really seeing it. “Why is it that when I try to help someone, the situation gets worse?”
He winced. “It doesn’t always. Look, we rescued Tammy.”
Storey sniffled, hating the image of that whole female weakness thing, but she’d love to break down and bawl – just for a moment. Just long enough to release the pressure valve threatening to blow. She’d feel so much better. But not here and not now – and not with Eric watching.
The apple would have to do. She took another bite. She needed the food for energy. The thought of this not being her home, or worse not being her dimension, made her sick. She loved her mother. For all her mother’s foibles, they’d had a good relationship. They still did, she corrected herself mentally. There’s no way she’d accept that her life with her mother was over.
“Ask the stylus.” Eric gazed at her, one eyebrow raised.
“Good idea. But I’ll need some paper.”
“Would they have paper downstairs?”
She shrugged and stood up. “I don’t know. I’ll have to go see.” She didn’t want to leave the relative safety and quiet of the room, but she needed answers.
The master bedroom was at the end of the hall, right at the top of the stairs. Even if her parents or whoever lived here came home, it’s possible that by keeping the light off in her room, no one would know they were hiding there. She could create another portal but all these jumps were taking them somewhere…not quite right…and she needed to find out why.
At her mom’s room, she was forced to turn on the light. And stopped, swallowed hard, and quickly moved forward. Maybe her parents didn’t live here. The bedroom set was a heavy mahogany with dark drapes and dark carpet. Terrible.
She strode to the night table and checked the drawers, hoping for a pad of paper. Nothing in the first drawer and the second one only offered a small note pad. Better than nothing, but she needed sheets of paper if her big sketchbooks weren’t available. At this rate, she’d be leaving them in all the dimensions. If there was an office downstairs, then a printer and printer paper would be possible. Slipping down the stairs, keeping the lights off, she walked through the rooms, coming to the den. Half the room had been established as an office. Again dark furniture, dark carpets and even darker caramel walls. She hated it.
Walking to the computer, she saw it was still on but asleep. The monitor looked different, too. A great, big, square unit. As long as it worked. She booted it back out of hibernation then searched for paper. At the printer, she found a pile of perforated accordion paper that had gone out of style years ago. The printer also looked old, huge and clunky. Weird. Still the reams of paper were perfect and because it was continuous she could draw as big a picture as she needed too. Several inches should do.
Back at the computer, she opened a browser, and tried to bring up a few of her favorite sites to see if there were any messages. And couldn’t find any of the pages. Her throat started to close in on her. Surely what she was thinking wasn’t possible, was it? Clicking on the calendar in the corner of the screen, the day was May 21st and that was certainly reasonable, but the year – she gasped.
Ten years ago. Ten. A whole decade earlier than she wanted it to be. This wasn’t her house. It wouldn’t be her house for another few months at least. That’s why it all looked so different. She didn’t remember if this is how the house had looked when she first moved in because, well, she’d been a kid. So much hadn’t happened yet. She’d only be in first grade. Chances were good her parents were either newly divorced or in the process. A tough time back then for her family.
Unbelievable.
Once again, her arms full, she ran up the stairs. Eric looked up in surprise as she burst into the room.
Trying to keep her voice low so as to not disturb Tammy, she said, “Oh Eric, we’ve got a bigger problem than we thought.”
He frowned, grabbed an apple and took a big bite. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ve gone back in time. Ten years backwards.”
His brows furrowed and he stopped chewing in mid bite. He blinked several times as if trying to process the information. “What? How do you know that?”
“The computer downstairs.”
“Could it be wrong?”
Could it? She twisted her lips and considered. “I don’t know. Maybe? I never thought to double check. God, that was stupid.”
“Is there any way here to check? Without having to go downstairs again?”
How could they check? A small radio sat on the desk. A clock radio. She walked closer. “This might tell us.” After pushing the power button, she set the dial to radio. Soft music filled the room. “I don’t know if they’ll talk about the date, though.”
Along the back of the dresser sat an old calendar. For the year 2002. She picked it up, turning to show it to Eric. He frowned.
She scavenged through the rest of the drawers, wishing there’d be a few articles of usable clothing. Nothing. The closet was just as empty. Crap. The master bedroom might have some, but she had no way of knowing what size the woman, if there was a woman living here, wore. There might be a front closet with sweaters or jackets, but she and Tammy could use a change of clothes.
Striding to the center of the room, she dropped to the floor and reached for the ream of paper. Pulling out her stylus, she started in on the questions.
“Is it possible that we’ve gone back in time?”
A hum filled the air. Yes.
“Can we get back to our normal time?”
The answer came faster. Yes.
Her breath gusted out and she couldn’t resist looking at Eric. He grinned. “See. We can fix this.”
She rolled her eyes at him and returned to getting answers.
“Stylus, how do we go back to our time?”
Go back through the same portal.
“The portal that took us here? I thought it was damaged so we shouldn’t use it again.” She picked up the paper she’d folded and tossed at the foot of the bed.
When damaged they still go to the same place, but might not hit the target right on. In this case the time line appears to be damaged.
“Actually we ended up not quite in the right spot either. We were close, but landed several miles away.”
Exactly.
Storey snickered. “To you maybe. So if we go to the same portal, we’ll arrive either back outside of the house or inside this room again. And it could take us closer in time, or might hit the right time?
Yes.
“Oh boy.”
Eric stood and looked at Tammy. “I could carry her.”
“We could we end up miles away again.”
He grimaced.
Storey continued to talk. “Stylus, if we try to go back to Paxton’s lab, will the time frame be wrong there?”
Yes. You would be moving through this time frame now.
“So we have to fix the time here first?” She rubbed her eyes. When would something be simple.
That is correct.
“So after we get back to the normal time, how do we find Tammy’s parents so that we can portal to them and reunite them? We don’t want to go back and risk meeting the wrong group of Louers again.”
Eric stepped up behind her to read the stylus message this time for himself. He crouched down, his arm over her shoulder.
“Hey, are you reading this?”
Chapter 13
One thing at a time. Fix the time warp first.
Eric rubbed the
back of his neck, his other hand absentmindedly rubbing Storey’s back as he thought about what the stylus had written. Like it made something so hard to even contemplate – easy.
“I’m so tired. Do we rest first?” She stared at his face, so close to hers, for answers.
“Or do we do this next jump so that you are at least back in the house that you actually live in – at the right time.”
She rolled her eyes. Oh right. “Yes, that makes sense. It would be wonderful if walking through that portal takes us right back into this room. Then we could sleep for a few hours.”
On cue, they both looked over at the sleeping Tammy.
Storey frowned. “I hate to disturb her.”
“If we’re just going to end up back in this room, then I can pick her up, walk through and lay her back down again.
“Why is it I don’t think it’s going to be that simple?”
He grinned. “Because it never has been?” he suggested, straightening. He glanced around the room at the food still lying out in disarray. “I guess we should tidy this mess first.”
“Definitely. It would be better to not leave any sign that we’ve been here.”
“And I’m getting hungry again.”
Storey groaned. “You’re as bad as she is.” She hopped to her feet and began cleaning up the food, absentmindedly making him another sandwich while she was at it. Bagging their food and garbage, she added the computer paper to their collection and put on her jacket. Finally, she laid the portal drawing on the floor. Glancing over at him, she watched as he carefully bent over Tammy and her pet, scooped them up like they hardly weighed anything. The skorl glared at him for disturbing his sleep but never cried out or tried to run off.
Straightening, Eric walked to where she stood. “Ready?”
Taking a deep breath, she said, “Yes.” She stepped back as he hopped through, Tammy still asleep in his arms. He disappeared from sight.
“Please let this work.”
She grabbed the corner and fell once more into the portal, taking the paper with her.
*
Eric opened his eyes and studied his new location. It wasn’t Storey’s bedroom. Unfortunately. Tammy still slept in his arms and he’d have loved to have been able to lay her right back down. He waited for Storey to show up. And waited.
“Anytime Storey. I don’t want to be lost in time without you and your portals, thank you very much.”
The words had barely left his mouth when she arrived behind him.
She flopped back onto the pathway. In a hoarse whisper, she said, “I’d really like to be in bed right now.”
“So would I.” He waited a beat. “Any idea where we are?”
She groaned but staggered to her feet. “Not a clue.” She brushed her pants off and straightened to look around her. “In theory, we should be closer to the house than last time.”
“And we need to be because I won’t be able to carry Tammy very far.”
He shifted the load in his arms impatiently.
Determinedly, she spun around as if trying to orient herself. “Right then.”
Eric watched the emotions flash across her face. Her face showed everything. She was so honest in her expression. There was no deceit. No subterfuge. You saw exactly what she was thinking. It also meant she couldn’t lie to him.
A refreshing change. He didn’t know many eligible women in his world and as a ranger, and worse, as the Councilman’s son, he wasn’t treated the same as the other guys. The women were more formal with him; more on the lookout for a long-term relationship instead of just a fun evening. In his world, he was considered a catch. He suspected Storey would laugh at that.
“Well,” he prompted, hating to show he was tiring, but Tammy was a heavyweight. “I need to put Tammy down soon.”
Storey spun around, a huge smile on her face. “I think I have it. Let’s go.” She took off ahead of him. He followed at a much slower pace. So much for believing he could do anything. The longer he carried Tammy, the more he realized he was going to need to bulk up his muscles if trips like this were to continue. As much as he hated the thought of not being invincible…
Then he saw it.
“Is that your house?” He looked around. “We came in from the other side.” He brightened. “That’s the path to the school where we first met, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” She almost raced to the house, a lively bounce to her step.
“Storey, wait.” He hated to blow her joy but someone needed to be the voice of reason here.
She spun around. “I’m sorry, what? I’m just so hoping this is it. That I’m home.”
“I know that. But did you ever wonder if there might be another Storey in this house? In this dimension or this time?”
The smile fell off her face. Horror filled her gaze. “There couldn’t be, could there?”
“I have no idea. It’s just we’re back at the same house, your house, supposedly in the time frame that you were living here back then…so where are you?”
She tilted her head back to stare up at the sky. “I’m getting a headache.”
“And what’s the chance the house is empty? Do we even know what day it is anymore? Are you in school today? Does your mother work? Did you consider any of that?”
“Of course, I didn’t,” she snapped. “I can’t think straight anymore. But inside is a bed, my bed, where you can lay her down.”
He considered that – for a heartbeat. “Right. Lead the way.”
Again, she walked to the back kitchen door. He wondered why she never used the front door.
At the back, she found the kitchen door unlocked. “That’s more like it.”
“You aren’t worried about intruders here?”
“No. Small town and all that.” She pushed it open wide enough for him and Tammy to enter.
“Small town, two women who live a distance away from any neighbors?”
“Let’s just say that up to now, it hasn’t been much of an issue.”
He nodded, but doubted it would stay that way after life returned to normal. She’d changed. Become more self-confident. More secure. But with the confidence came more awareness of all the things that could go wrong. A loss of innocence, in a way.
It was both good and bad, and it was a sign of maturity.
Inside the kitchen, he stopped and watched her assess her surroundings. Her gaze narrowed on the calendar on the wall. It said May, a relief. From where he stood he couldn’t see the year. He could only hope they’d arrived on time. “Storey.”
When she didn’t respond, he repeated it, “Storey.”
“What?” She spun around when he didn’t answer right away.
“I need to put her down.”
Her gaze widened. “Oh geez. I’m so sorry. Come on, let’s go up.”
By now he knew the way, but suspected she wanted to see what her room looked like this time. He didn’t care. His muscles were screaming and fatigue had taken over. He needed rest, too. At this rate, Tammy would wake and they wouldn’t be able to sleep themselves because they’d need to look after her. His back was killing him, but there was no way he’d let Storey know. He was a ranger. They had an image to uphold. So how come there’d been no mention of rescuing damsels and children in distress anywhere in their manual?
Oh wait, what manual?
Storey opened the door and stepped inside. And stopped.
He groaned silently. Now what?
*
“So?” Eric’s stressed voice prodded her forward.
“It looks the same.” Thank God. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to see that.”
“But?”
She turned back toward him, confused. “But what?”
“You haven’t entered fully,” he snapped. “If everything is all right, let me in.”
Finally, the impatience, fatigue and frustration in his voice hit her. She stepped aside quickly. He had to be exhausted. “Sorry, I’m tired too.”
“And
that’s going to have to be something we address immediately.” At the bed he leaned over to lay Tammy down. Storey rushed over. “Hang on.” She pulled the covers back. “Now, lay her down. Maybe we’ll be lucky and she’ll sleep long enough for us to rest as well.”
“I doubt it, but I need to crash regardless. I think the time travel stuff finished my system.” Straightening, his gaze fell to the open floor. “I’m going to lie on the floor with that blanket if you don’t mind?” He pointed at the one half falling off the end of her bed. Storey snatched it up and held it out to him.
“I’m thinking to lie down beside Tammy, actually.”
Eric didn’t even look at where she pointed. He’d stretched out on the floor, pulling her blanket over him. “Go ahead. I won’t sleep long. A couple of hours should recharge me.”
“Good for you. I doubt that little bit will do me,” she muttered. Storey locked her bedroom door, turned out the light and curled up behind Tammy. The rodent opened his eyes, glared at her, realized she wasn’t moving and returned to his spot in the crook of Tammy’s arms.
She was so tired. Yet the thought of another Storey walking in on them was enough to keep her mind buzzing. She needed rest. She needed solutions. She’d needed this to all go back to normal.
Somehow.
While her mind pondered and fussed, Eric slept deeply on the floor beside her. His snores wafted gently through the room, making her smile. Then she was jealous. He could rest so easily. As if there weren’t a million problems pressing in on them. She desperately needed rest, too. And a shower and a change of clothes and…she fell asleep.
*
“Storey.” Her shoulder was jostled. She frowned and tried to burrow deeper into her pillow.
The insistent voice wouldn’t let up. “Storey, wake up.”
She grumbled, “Too tired.”
“I know you’re tired, but there’s a problem.”
Storey’s eyes slowly opened as that information filtered in. They were safe. They were home. So what was the big deal? Her mind flooded with memories. She sat up slowly, hating the screaming going on in her head, and felt tempted to ignore everything and go back to sleep. Her brain screamed for more sleep. “Eric? How long did we sleep?”